I will not update from that save i posted. (Not played it since anyway.) The point was to show you a save of how it could of looked but I guess that was not helpful really as we used different starting locations. Didn't mean to upset.
The odds on my attacks to take the capital were very low. Below 1-10%. Maybe below 1%. It's all about the dice roll when you attack the spear. If I did it again i might get a different result. If the spear survives full strength after 2-3 attacks then the chances of taking the city are low.
Horse Archer rushes can work well but this is not the map for an HA rush as you have very low food, health and happiness resources. (it took a lot of effort to trade for resources on the game you posted.)
A horse archer rush is normally started by beelining Horse back riding with the idea to have 10-12 horse archers by about 1000bc. So you get all key worker techs like Bronze working/The wheel//pottery and techs for nearby food resources. Maybe even writing too as libraries speed up research. Then focus on researching Horseback riding/archery with 3 or so cities. You can then whip city population/chop forest to get 10-11 HA as soon as possible. Use of whip overflow too Ideally with granaries but at times speed is better. On Prince you won't need so many units especially if the ai have no metal. Of course that is 20 years of civ play on how i learned to do it. Lot of mechcanics involved to do all of this.
If your units loiter around Ai cities the Ai will typically whip a new unit each turn. Ideally when rushing you try to go for the capital first. If you time it well often there will only be 2-3 archers defending. It will be much harder on a hill. Normally i promote my units with strength for the 10% bonus.
It's harder to help when you are posting saves past 1ad. It's the first 50 turns where you probably need more help. Not every map will be an HA rush map. We need to work out why your second city is a bit slower. With only 1 cow resource that would delay it a few turns. Given your comments I won't test this as you can do this yourself.
In general there is an opportunity cost of growth vs how much actual time it will save on the settler build. E.g. growing for a 3-4F farm/floodplain or a 1f3H mine may not speed up settler production much. Where if you have two 5-6 F tiles then these will. So the double cow here was worth it has it took many tuns off the settler build. Where if I have to grow for 5-6 turns and settler is 1-2 turns faster it's just delaying my expansion. If you have 2-3 decent 5f/6F tiles it may be worth whipping the settler at size 4 or 6. I think Sampsa would say to whip as soon as possible. Same for workers size 4 to size 2. Of course these are mechanics for you to learn what works best.
I did use a blocker city on the game i posted but only cause i wanted the fish health. Pretty sure the AI would of taken that spot if they could. It actually kept many tiles it could work so added some value.
Looks like you got a lot of good advice from Lymond. There is no tick box way to teach you this game as every map is different and may need a different technique.
The odds on my attacks to take the capital were very low. Below 1-10%. Maybe below 1%. It's all about the dice roll when you attack the spear. If I did it again i might get a different result. If the spear survives full strength after 2-3 attacks then the chances of taking the city are low.
Horse Archer rushes can work well but this is not the map for an HA rush as you have very low food, health and happiness resources. (it took a lot of effort to trade for resources on the game you posted.)
A horse archer rush is normally started by beelining Horse back riding with the idea to have 10-12 horse archers by about 1000bc. So you get all key worker techs like Bronze working/The wheel//pottery and techs for nearby food resources. Maybe even writing too as libraries speed up research. Then focus on researching Horseback riding/archery with 3 or so cities. You can then whip city population/chop forest to get 10-11 HA as soon as possible. Use of whip overflow too Ideally with granaries but at times speed is better. On Prince you won't need so many units especially if the ai have no metal. Of course that is 20 years of civ play on how i learned to do it. Lot of mechcanics involved to do all of this.
If your units loiter around Ai cities the Ai will typically whip a new unit each turn. Ideally when rushing you try to go for the capital first. If you time it well often there will only be 2-3 archers defending. It will be much harder on a hill. Normally i promote my units with strength for the 10% bonus.
It's harder to help when you are posting saves past 1ad. It's the first 50 turns where you probably need more help. Not every map will be an HA rush map. We need to work out why your second city is a bit slower. With only 1 cow resource that would delay it a few turns. Given your comments I won't test this as you can do this yourself.
In general there is an opportunity cost of growth vs how much actual time it will save on the settler build. E.g. growing for a 3-4F farm/floodplain or a 1f3H mine may not speed up settler production much. Where if you have two 5-6 F tiles then these will. So the double cow here was worth it has it took many tuns off the settler build. Where if I have to grow for 5-6 turns and settler is 1-2 turns faster it's just delaying my expansion. If you have 2-3 decent 5f/6F tiles it may be worth whipping the settler at size 4 or 6. I think Sampsa would say to whip as soon as possible. Same for workers size 4 to size 2. Of course these are mechanics for you to learn what works best.
I did use a blocker city on the game i posted but only cause i wanted the fish health. Pretty sure the AI would of taken that spot if they could. It actually kept many tiles it could work so added some value.
Looks like you got a lot of good advice from Lymond. There is no tick box way to teach you this game as every map is different and may need a different technique.
city with mines that doesn't whip).
